Featherston water supply reports and decisions
Steve Dore made this Official Information request to South Wairarapa District Council
The request was refused by South Wairarapa District Council.
From: Steve Dore
Dear South Wairarapa District Council,
Please provide copies of all reports (including documents and email correspondence) from Wellington Water that disclose or comment on the condition of drinking water supply to Featherston between 2020 and Feb 2022.
Please also provide copies of all SWDC correspondence, minutes, reports, and decisions in respect of those reports and any issues or concerns contained in them over the same period.
Yours faithfully,
NJPC
From: Enquiries
South Wairarapa District Council
Good morning, Steve,
Thank you for your email, i have passed this onto our information officer
Zoya who will respond shortly.
Kind regards
Mandy
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From: Steve Dore <[FOI #18539 email]>
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2022 7:52 PM
To: Enquiries <[South Wairarapa District Council request email]>
Subject: Official Information request - Featherston water supply reports
and decisions
Dear South Wairarapa District Council,
Please provide copies of all reports (including documents and email
correspondence) from Wellington Water that disclose or comment on the
condition of drinking water supply to Featherston between 2020 and Feb
2022.
Please also provide copies of all SWDC correspondence, minutes, reports,
and decisions in respect of those reports and any issues or concerns
contained in them over the same period.
Yours faithfully,
NJPC
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From: Official Information Requests
South Wairarapa District Council
Good morning Steve,
This is acknowledgement we have received your request for information
under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.
This is currently being processed with a calculated due date of 14 March
2022. If the response is ready before this estimated date I will release
it as soon as possible.
If you have any questions during the processing period, please let me
know.
Kind Regards
Zoya Huxford
Information Officer
South Wairarapa District Council
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Steve Dore <[1][FOI #18539 email]>
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2022 7:52 PM
To: Enquiries <[2][South Wairarapa District Council request email]>
Subject: Official Information request - Featherston water supply reports
and decisions
Dear South Wairarapa District Council,
Please provide copies of all reports (including documents and email
correspondence) from Wellington Water that disclose or comment on the
condition of drinking water supply to Featherston between 2020 and Feb
2022.
Please also provide copies of all SWDC correspondence, minutes, reports,
and decisions in respect of those reports and any issues or concerns
contained in them over the same period.
Yours faithfully,
NJPC
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[3][FOI #18539 email]
Is [4][South Wairarapa District Council request email] the wrong address for Official Information
requests to South Wairarapa District Council? If so, please contact us
using this form:
[5]https://fyi.org.nz/change_request/new?bo...
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[6]https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please
ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA
page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
References
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2. mailto:[South Wairarapa District Council request email]
3. mailto:[FOI #18539 email]
4. mailto:[South Wairarapa District Council request email]
5. https://fyi.org.nz/change_request/new?bo...
6. https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
From: Zoya Huxford- Information officer
South Wairarapa District Council
Good afternoon,
I am writing regarding your below request for information:
Please provide copies of all reports (including documents and email
correspondence) from Wellington Water that disclose or comment on the
condition of drinking water supply to Featherston between 2020 and Feb
2022.
Please also provide copies of all SWDC correspondence, minutes, reports,
and decisions in respect of those reports and any issues or concerns
contained in them over the same period.
Reports we receive from Wellington Water regarding drinking water supply
can be found publicly through meeting agendas and minutes all of which can
be found on our website through this [1]link. This may be useful if you
are interested in looking while waiting for our final response to be
released. When I release the final response to you, I can provide meetings
that may be of interest, but I do not yet have a final list of these. We
also require a refinement of your question related to email correspondence
from Wellington Water discussing the condition of the drinking water
supply to Featherston between 2020 and Feb 2022, with this being a broad
timeframe of 2 years this will require substantial collation and research
which we are unable to provide due to staff constraints and resourcing.
This email is not a refusal of your request, if we can communicate on
altering this request period, it would be much appreciated. I am happy to
help with this if required.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Kind Regards
Zoya Huxford
Information Officer
South Wairarapa District Council
References
Visible links
1. https://swdc.govt.nz/meetings/
From: Steve Dore
Dear Zoya
Thanks for your intial reply on behalf of SWDC.
The link to reports SWDC has received is useful - SWDC will need to formally decline this aspect of the request as publicly available, if that view is correct.
Your email says SWDC require clarification of about email correspondence. Under LGOIMA, SWDC needed to do this within 7 working days of the request (see s 13(8)) but has not done so.
Simply identifying a timeframe of 2 years does not mean that there is information that requires substantial research and collation, and I have not been provided with any indication of why you consider that to be the case.
I would not expect that using a search term such as "Featherston's water supply" or "water" and "Featherston" to be substantial research and collation. If SWDC consider it is, I would be grateful if you could describe what methods you used to confirm the task would require substantial research and collation.
As above, unfortunately, LGOIMA does not permit SWDC to request to clarify the scope of the request at this stage.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Dore
From: Official Information Requests
South Wairarapa District Council
Good afternoon Steve,
please accept my apologies if my wording didn’t provide a clear explanation of why we require a refinement. The reason for why a keyword search would result in substantial collation/research is because searching 'Featherston Water Supply' will pull up results for every water issue we have received even if it is for example: a request for service requests from customers which I do not believe you are seeking.
This is not a refusal of your request, and I would like to assist you in finding the information you are looking for. In order to provide you with the information you require are you able to narrow the subject related to Featherston's water supply issues to help us identify the emails that are relevant to your request.
Kind Regards
Zoya Huxford
Information Officer
South Wairarapa District Council
show quoted sections
From: Steve Dore
Kia ora Zoya
Thanks for getting back to me.
Because SWDC seeks a clarification of the request outside the 7 day time limit to do so (s 13(8)(b) of LGOIMA), it must respond by this Friday 11 March 2022. Because SWDC is not entitled to treat the clarification as a new request, SWDC must respond to, and compile for release, a clarified request within two working days. I am not sure that is particularly tenable.
I would prefer that SWDC responds to the request and, if it relies on substantial research and clarification, I would ask that SWDC tries to provide assistance on how (having full access to the information likely to be of interest to the requestor) the request may be narrowed - such as a list of the email threads within scope or themes of correspondence within scope.
Nga mihi
Steve Dore
From: Zoya Huxford- Information officer
South Wairarapa District Council
Good morning Steve,
I have discussed this request with management and Stefan Corbett Group Manager, Partnerships and Operations would like to speak with you further about this request. Would you be able to give him a call on 0273584099.
Kind Regards
Zoya Huxford
Information Officer
South Wairarapa District Council
show quoted sections
From: Steve Dore
Kia ora Zoya
Thank you for your patience and endeavours to clarify some of this request.
This request is now overdue for a decision by 11 March, having been received by SWDC on 11 February.
Calling the General Manager won't assist SWDC to meet it's statutory obligations here - although a request to clarify within 7 working days of receipt of the request likely would have.
I look forward to a decision by COP Monday. My preference is not to make an Ombudsman's complaint but the LGOIMA statutory process does exist for a reason.
Nga mihi
Steve Dore
From: Official Information Requests
South Wairarapa District Council
Good afternoon Steve,
I am emailing regarding your below request for information. We are now refusing this request under section 17 (f) due to substantial collation required to process this request.
You have a right to request a review by the Ombudsman on this response. Further information about this process can be found on https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/what... or email [email address]
Kind Regards
Zoya Huxford
Information Officer
South Wairarapa District Council
show quoted sections
From: Steve Dore
Hi Zoya,
Thanks for letting me know.
You said earlier that some of the information was publicly available, but this decision says that the whole request is refused as requiring substantial collation and research.
Could you confirm whether this was intentional or an oversight that the whole request has now been declined for that reason?
I'd be grateful for a short explanation about why you think extending the timeframe wouldn't be appropriate or charging a fee, which is what s 17A(1) of LGOIMA requires SWDC to do.
If you have any guidance about narrowing the scope, that would be helpful. I'll otherwise set about drafting a revised request.
Kind regards
Steve Dore
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
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